


Roaring 20s

by DIPHYLLEIATAE



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M, nurseydex - Freeform, punk nursey, soft dex, youtube au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-05
Updated: 2016-09-05
Packaged: 2018-08-13 06:40:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7966456
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DIPHYLLEIATAE/pseuds/DIPHYLLEIATAE
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“<em>I think that we know that we know each other really well,</em></p><p>
  <em>I know I wanna know you for the rest of my life.”</em>
</p><p>It wasn't love at first sight (<em>no one</em> falls in love at 20), their honeymoon phase lasted all but two weeks (courtesy of the word <em>chill</em>), there were times when the future didn't look certain and they were (and <em>still</em> are) the definitions of opposites attract.</p><p>They're still in their 20s but it's been four years and they know what their love looks like; it looks unconventional and weird and strange but it looks like <em>them.</em></p><p>
  <em>alternative universe: (soft dex™ + punk nursey™ + youtube)</em>
</p><p> </p>
            </blockquote>





	Roaring 20s

**Author's Note:**

> \- the seventh prompt for nurseydex week: alternative universe (soft dex™ + punk nursey™ + youtube)  
> \- look ik nurseydex week finished and it is now september but frick it do i care  
> \- the title is from the rizzle kicks album of the same name because i listened to 'i love you more than you think' while writing this more times than i thought possible  
> \- and there is also the fact that the rest of the fics have had a number title so why not  
> \- there are so many fucking references to 'please like me' in this fic but i don't care it needs a bigger fanbase and i am in love with everything about the fucking show  
> \- characters belong to ngozi ukazu
> 
> [tumblr](http://daeguarchives.tumblr.com)   
>  [twitter](http://twitter.com/daeguarchives)

Nursey readjusted the camera, making sure it was in focus before sitting back on his bed and addressing his YouTube audience. This was his 100th video and his fans were going to be surprised when they saw what it was. He had a fanbase of over six million subscribers; it was only five years ago when he'd decided to make a YouTube channel that was sort of a mess of everything, he guessed. It had the occasional cover video but it was mostly just him doing Q&As, performing his slam poetry and talking about random shit.

“Hey, guys! Today, I'm filming my 100th video and I decided that today was going to be a special video. You guys have been requesting this ever since you found Dex and I were dating, and that was _a year_ ago. It's taken so long mostly because Dex is really camera shy, so be gentle on him, yeah? So, here we go, the highly anticipated Boyfriend Tag video is finally being filmed!”

“Do I have to?” Dex complained from off camera before reluctantly sitting down next to Nursey, who kissed him gently on the cheek and grinned at him.

They looked like complete opposites; Nursey in his leather jacket with his sleeves rolled up, black t-shirt and ripped skinny jeans which he donned in every other video. Dex, on the other hand, was wearing yet another pastel sweater and white tee with shorts and a floral baseball cap. Nursey's tattoo sleeve and all his piercings were on full view; the five earrings he had gotten on a whim last year, the nose ring that he'd got at a sleepover when he was 14 and the lip ring Dex had convinced him to get, telling him it would look hot. All Dex had was a small silver nose stud, which was definitely a stark contrast.

“Introduce yourself, babe.”

“What do I- okay, I'm Will? But I mostly go by Dex, which is a hockey nickname even though I never played hockey, I just used to hang out with a lot of players. I'm 24 and I sing?”

“You're honestly sounding like you don't even know who you are, how are you going to answer the questions?”

Dex smiled, “Shut up, I'm going to wing it.”

“Okay, first question. How did we meet?”

“Oh, well Nursey was a complete dork,” Dex said with a grin as he went to kiss Nursey's cheek again.

 

_Nursey slumped down at his regular booth at the Creations café just a couple of blocks down from his house for Open Mic Night, he'd had a long day practising his drumming as well as editing his latest YouTube video, and right now all he wanted was sit down and listen to some good music. Maybe he'd go to a bar later and get drunk enough to get rid of the stress, but not drunk enough to have a massive hangover in the morning – his room mate would kill him. He didn't usually come to Open Mic Night when the line up was a singing majority, he preferred listening to slam poetry – where people got passionate and angry and creative in all the ways they could call the world out on its bullshit._

_He ordered a hot chocolate and slipped his leather jacket off, displaying his half finished tattoo sleeve in all its glory. He played with his nose ring as he waited for the first act, it was a girl he'd seen at the café before, he was sure she was the pianist who played in the corner regularly. She had a nice voice, it wasn't **captivating** but it was **nice** and it relaxed him so he wasn't complaining. In the interval between the fourth and fifth performer, Nursey got up – or at least he tried to, but one disadvantage to wearing ripped skinny jeans was the threads occasionally got caught onto things. He quickly unravelled it from the underside of the table before getting up and standing, as he reached for his leather jacket, the host announced the newest act. **Great** , Nursey thought, **if he left now, he'd look like an asshole.**_

_“Okay, so up next, we have a first time performer. Give a hand to Will Poindexter who will be singing Kiss Me by Sixpence None The Richer.”_

_He sat back down and leaned across the table, completely captivated by the ginger boy who had just walked onto the stage. He had a flower crown woven into his hair and was wearing a pale yellow woollen sweater paired with snug dark denim shorts. He placed his shoulder bag on the floor before adjusting the microphone height and nervously smiling at the crowd. The blush that was blooming on his face meant that he had apparently noticed Nursey's intense gaze before he closed his eyes and opened his mouth to sing._

_**“** ****O** h, kiss me out of the bearded barley,”** _

_Nursey was pretty sure that he had just fallen in love with Will's voice, it was soft and gentle and it made him want to gently sway along to the music without a care in the world. It helped that Will was pretty cute too, he looked like a ginger version of Arnold from Please Like Me. His body was splashed with freckles, his amber eyes shon when the dim lights of the café hit them, he'd tugged his sweater over his hands to create sweater paws and he looked absolutely adorable. **He was fucking beautiful,** Nursey decided, and he'd be an idiot to let him go._

_After Will's set, he sat down at the table at the front, and Nursey couldn't get up and sit next to him because of course Will had chosen a table with one chair, and dragging another chair over would be way to loud. He went outside for a cigarette before the next act could be announced, and was leaning against the café wall when he heard the door he’d just exited through open; on instinct he turned his head to see who was there, it was Will. Nursey threw the cigarette on the floor before crushing it under his foot and walked up to the boy._

_“Hey, Will, right?”_

_Will turned around and smiled at Nursey, holding out a hand to shake, “Yeah, but everyone calls me Dex.”_

_“Hockey nickname?”_

_“How'd you know?”_

_“I'm Derek but I go by Nursey. Never would have thought you'd be a hockey player.”_

_Dex blushed before looking down at the pavement, “I'm not, I just used to hang out with them a lot.”_

_“Anyway, I was wondering if I could get your number. I mean, I would ask you on a date but it's 11 at night and I don't think many places are open at this time.”_

_Dex didn’t say anything and Nursey saw no choice but to carry on, “Well, there are bars and clubs but those aren't really places you go to on dates, unless that's your scene, of course. I mean, it just doesn’t really feel like great date material, you know? I was thinking more of a coffee date, I know a couple of really great places but if there’s there’s somewhere else you’d rather go just say-”_

_Nursey noticed a small smile on Dex’s face and had to stop himself from hiding his head in his hands._

_“Oh God, I'm making a complete mess of this, aren’t I? It’s just, you're so cute and your voice was so amazing, is literally my favourite sound right now. Don't even get me started on your blush, it's so adorable and you remind me of this character from a show you probably haven't seen because, God, it's so lowkey that it's annoying. I'm completely rambling now, I have never done this before. I was a goddamn English major and all I wanted to do was ask you out on a date but here I am rambling like a fuck-”_

_Nursey was cut off from his rambling by soft lips hesitantly pressing against his right cheek._

_Before he could even respond, Dex stepped back before kicking at the pavement, and smiled the most beautiful smile up at Nursey, “I would really like that.”_

 

“Okay, the next question is what was your first date like?”

“You wanna go for this one?” Dex asked.

“We went to a live concert and Dex looked fucking gorgeous dancing,” Nursey said before kissing his boyfriend quickly.

 

_Nursey waited outside the hole-in-the-wall warehouse where he would be taking Dex on their first date. The two of them had been texting and calling constantly for past two weeks before they finally had a day where neither of them were busy. Filming, editing and practising had Nursey wiped out and busy the first week and the second week, Dex was busy with his clothing line. They'd learnt a lot about each other, things like how Dex liked to dance alone in his apartment and how Nursey liked taking pictures of the people he loved and how Dex cried when one of his t-shirts sold out in a day and how Nursey cried when he reached 100,000 subscribers on YouTube._

_Dex walked up to Nursey in his classic pastel colours and shoulder bag, except this time he was wearing a crop top. He hesitantly reached out and intertwined his fingers with Nursey's while nervously rubbing at his arms. Nursey took Dex's other hand in his own and said, “Chill.”_

_Dex looked annoyed and Nursey grinned, he knew just what that word did to Dex, “I like your top.”_

_The annoyance left his face and surprise was etched on it instead,“Really?”_

_“Yeah, you look cute.”_

_“Thanks,” Dex said before Nursey led him into the warehouse._

_Tonight was one of the relaxed nights, it was going to be live performances, a couple of remixes thrown in and some acoustic versions of popular songs. Nursey was surprised when Dex took his hand with a lot more initiative as he dragged Nursey to the group of people who were dancing._

_“Come on! We've got to dance!”_

_“I don't dance.”_

_“No one **actually** dances, they just have fun! Look, I'll show you.”_

Dex placed Nursey's hands on his waist and placed his own hands _around Nursey's biceps,”We'll sway, yeah?” Nursey nodded and started swaying to the beat slowly and all Dex did was put more emphasis on his hips when he swayed and start going faster. The two of them got closer and closer as the song went on, practically hugging each other by the end but still slightly swaying. When a new song started playing, Dex gasped and moved away from Nursey, throwing his hands up in the air and closing his eyes as he danced by himself. He was in his own little bubble and all Nursey could do was think about how hot Dex looked when he danced._

_He moved closer to Dex once again and tilted the other boy’s chin up so he could kiss him. Dex wrapped his arms around Nursey's neck and Nursey wrapped his around Dex's waist again so he could bring him closer and kiss him harder. The two of them moved away from the group of people who seemed unaware of what was going on and Nursey backed Dex into a wall, taking his time when kissing at Dex's jaw before moving lower and leaving hickeys on Dex's pale neck. His hands slithered up Dex's crop top and that's when Dex stopped._

_“I-I'm sorry, I jus- I don't feel comfortable doing that right now.”_

_Nursey caressed Dex's cheek and whispered, “Hey, hey. It's okay. We can do it another time.”_

_“Really?”_

_“Yeah.”_

_The two stood in awkward silence before Nursey broke it and said, “You wanna leave this place and go get some food?”_

_Dex took Nursey's hand in his own, “I'd like that.”_

“Who said I love you first?”

Dex smiled, “Me.”

 

_The two of them were standing behind the Hook A Duck stall at one of Dex's cousins’ school fair, Dex had volunteered a couple of weeks ago and then convinced Nursey to come along to help him. The first hour had been uneventful, a lot of the kids would look at the stall and immediately walk away. Dex had laughed and told Nursey that it was his fault, his scowl and moody demeanour were scaring the kids. After managing to borrow some face paint off the stall next to them, Dex had chased Nursey around with a paint brush coated in bright pink face paint for a good ten minutes before Nursey had agreed to have a flower painted on him._

_Dex sat down Nursey on the edge of counter, just in front of the water where all the rubber ducks were floating in and set to work as he stood in between Nursey's legs. He painted a pink flower on Nursey's cheek and a series of hearts dotted the side of his face, starting at his jawline and ending at the top of his forehead. Nursey then grabbed the brush off Dex, tightening his legs around his boyfriend’s waist before he could run off, and started painting an array of smiling suns all around Dex's face. Dex was incredibly ticklish and kept moving around, but Nursey calmed that down by pressing kisses to his lips every time he finished a sun._

_The finishing touch was Dex taking off his flower crown and placing it on Nursey's head as Nursey returned the favour by draping his leather jacket around Dex's shoulders._

_Dex wrapped his arms around Nursey's neck and kissed him on the nose, “I love you,” he whispered._

_Nursey kissed Dex gently on the lips, “I love you too.”_

_Dex grinned at Nursey before he pushed his boyfriend into the small pool of water with a laugh._

_“Dex!” Nursey spluttered, reaching out a hand to grab Dex. Dex tried his best to move out of the way but he moved too slow and Nursey managed to grip his wrist. He pulled Dex into him and into the pool before using his other hand to splash water onto Dex's clothes and face._

_“Nursey! Oh my God, Nursey if you don't stop!” Dex used his hands to try and bat Nursey's away, because trying to talk him out of this wasn't working, before he decided to start splashing Nursey with the water himself._

_"Excuse me misters, can I play?”_

_The two of them stiffened before scrambling to get up and smooth down their rumpled clothes and sort out the ducks that had fallen onto the counter before smiling at the blonde boy who stood in front of them._

 

“Who gets jealous easily?”

“You, it is definitely you, Nursey.”

“Well, I have to keep you away from assholes who don't understand boundaries, don't I?”

“Who said I didn't like it?” Dex said as he moved so he was nestled under Nursey's arm.

 

 _The two of them stood at the counter of Subway, waiting for their sandwiches to be handed to them. The guy at the counter handed the sub to Dex, and Nursey felt his anger slowly rise again. The fucking douche had been flirting with Dex the entire time, and Dex, the poor idiot that he was, thought he was being friendly. When the guy let his hand linger on Dex's for a little too long, Nursey wrapped an arm around Dex's waist and kissed him harshly on the mouth before saying, “Come on, babe. We can't be late for_ **_our date_ ** _now.”_

_The two of them left the shop, Nursey with his arm still wrapped around Dex's waist and he made sure to glare at the guy at the counter as Dex stepped out of the door._

_When they got home and settled down on the couch in front of the TV, Dex poked Nursey on the chest, “What was that?”_

_“What was what?”_

_“The whole kissing thing back at the shop.”_

_“The guy was flirting with you, I had to let him know that you were taken.”_

_"I'm taken?”_

_“Yeah, you're my boyfriend.”_

_“When did we have this conversation?”_

_“Last week. I literally asked you to be my boyfriend.”_

_“I don't think you did.”_

_Nursey pondered for a short moment, “ Fuck, I forgot to ask you. I'd been thinking about it all fucking week and then I forgot to ask you.”_

_"I want to be your boyfriend.” Dex grinned._

_“I want to be your boyfriend too, babe.”_

“What was our first road trip like, Nursey?”

“Hell. It did have some good parts but yeah, Hell.”

“I don't know whether or not I should be insulted.”

Nursey threaded his fingers through Dex’s hair, “It wasn't you, just your taste in music and that fucking deer that started to follow us.”

Dex sighed, moving into Nursey’s touch, “I'm not good at being angry, I can't listen to angry music.”

“You're uptight as fuck, how is that different?”

“I listen to relaxing music to help me stop being so uptight but then you're all like,” Dex lowered his voice, “Babe, _chill._ And then I get uptight because that's annoying.”

“Okay,” Nursey laughed, “let's talk about the actual road trip.”

 

_“Dex, stop changing the station,” Nursey said, not taking his eyes off the road as he placed a hand on Dex’s to stop him from reaching the dials again._

_“But I don’t want to listen to The Clash or The Sex Pistols or another bunch of white dudes complaining. What did they have to complain about, anyway? How hard it was for them to steal punk from black people? How fucking terrible it must have been to be a straight, cis white dude back then.”_

_“Babe, chill.”_

_“I swear to God if you tell me to chill one more time, I’m going to get out of the car and hitchhike the rest of the way.”_

_“You’ll die.”_

_Dex folded his arms defensively, “Fuck off, no I won’t.”_

_“Yeah, you will. In every single movie about a hitchhiker, someone always dies. Could you kill someone, Dex, could you? No, which automatically means you would die.”_

_"I hate it when you’re right.”_

_“I’m always right.”_

_“Just like you were right about that time when we found out the goldfish had died and then you tried to blame it on Fish but in reality it was because Dog was a greedy fucking fish.”_

_“Why did we think naming our dog, Fish and naming our fish, Dog was a good idea?”_

_"What do you mean, we? I said we should name the dog, Netflix and the fish, Chill but you didn’t want to, remember?”_

_“I was not naming our children after a euphemism for sex.”_

_“Nursey, I suggested it because you like to tell me to chill and I like to watch Netflix.”_

_“You should have sai- holy shit, is that a deer behind us?”_

_“Yeah, it's been following us for the past hour now, did you seriously not notice?”_

_“Why didn't you tell me?”_

_"Because it's not dangerous?”_

_“What if it tries to kill us?”_

_“It's a deer, Nursey, not a bear. Because **that** could actually kill us.”_

_“Dex, if we die, I'm never leaving you alone in the afterlife.”_

 

“See, what I said about it being Hell?”

“It wasn't that bad, you ass.”

“I'm going to let Dex stay in his little bubble while we change it up, we're going to answer your questions now.”

Dex reached for Nursey's phone, “I want to read them out now.”

Nursey curled up with his phone pressed to his chest, “Nope, I'm reading the questions. It's my video, I get to read questions.”

Dex sighed before jumping on top of Nursey and trying to grab the phone out of his hands, “I'm never going to be in another one of your videos ever again.”

“Shit, okay. Here you go,” Nursey said as he handed Dex the phone and pushed him down on the bed to kiss him harshly.

“The next question is, who is the bott- Okay, I'm out,” Dex said as he stood up and left the room. He came back several minutes later with a tub of ice cream in his hand.

“Why are your fans so interested in our sex life? That was the first question, how much do you want to bet that there are a shit ton more of those?”

“Like, a hundred dollars?”

“I wasn't being serious, Jesus Christ, why am I dating you?”

“You're not dating Jesus, you're dating me.”

“Again, why am I dating you?”

“Because you _loooove_ me.”

“Yeah, I do,” Dex said softly before kissing Nursey gently.

“This is getting too sappy for us, read the next question.”

“How long have you guys been together for?”

“Four years, next week.”

“What is the most romantic thing Dex has done?”

“Dex made a montage of all our moments together for our three year anniversary.”

 

_Dex slipped the CD into Nursey's laptop as the two of them curled up together on their bed to watch it. Nursey lifted his arm so Dex could rest his head on his chest before resting it back where it was so he could hold Dex's hand in his own._

_The two of them had just come back from a date that Nursey had organised – they had an agreement, they'd take turns when it came to organising anniversary dates. It was a simple date, the two of them went to the fair that was only in town for a couple more days. The first thing they did was go on the Ferris Wheel where Dex held Nursey's hand tightly as the Ferris Wheel reached the top before they decided to check out the roller coasters. The two of them screamed at every loop and turn because they were_ **_those_ ** _people, they were sure that everyone behind them was currently deaf. After winning prizes for themselves, gorging on candy floss and going to see the psychic, Nursey led Dex to the field behind the fair. They lay their for an hour or two, just staring at the stars and talking about all the stupid shit they did like that time Nursey spilled cereal on Dex or the time Dex told the lady at the wedding shop that he was married to Nursey's mom to get free cake._

_“So, what is this?”_

_“Just watch it,” Dex shushed Nursey as he placed a finger to his lips, retracting it before it could be bitten._

_The opening notes of Rizzle Kicks' 'I Love You More Than You Think' played as the words 'Happy Anniversary, Derek' came onto the screen before the screen faded to black and the montage started._

_It started off with pictures; there were all the dorky selfies that he and Nursey had never posted on Instagram, all the close up pictures Nursey let him take of his eyes and tattoos and lips, all the poses Nursey did as a joke in front of the Eiffel Tower and Mount Vesuvius and so many other landmarks. Then there were all the pictures that they had made people take of them – pictures where Nursey carried Dex bridal style, where they had their arms wrapped around the other's waist and where they did cliché kissing on the cheek poses._

_The screen faded to black again and the video montage started up; there was the video of when the two of them spent the day lying on a trampoline, the time when Dex secretly filmed Nursey sleeping, when the two of them destroyed their friends at karaoke together. The screen faded to black and started a quick montage of videos where Dex would find Nursey off guard. There was the time at breakfast when Nursey hadn't had his coffee, at the ice hockey rink where Nursey kept shouting at the ref and when the two of them were sitting under a tree in the park and Nursey was going into detail about his new song before realising Dex was filming and pushed him down and kissed him hard._

 

“Okay, we've answered at least a hundred questions now, and Dex will start to get grumpy soon,” Nursey said before he was interrupted.

“No, I won't. I'm used to it now, I mean, I won't start being in your vlogs but I don't mind the camera, I guess.”

“Expect Dex to be in more of my videos, guys.”

“I just told you th- forget it, it's useless to reason with you.”

“See? Grumpy.”

“No, annoyed.”

“Babe, chi-” before Nursey could finish the word, he was whacked in the face with a pillow.

“This is what my fandom calls relationship goals, wow.”

“Shut up, you know they love you.”

“Yeah, but do you love me?”

“You know I do.”

“Okay, guys, don't forget to like and subscribe! Comment if you want but be careful because Dex will read them all. Don't forget to click on Dex's face so you can be directed to his channel, he doesn't upload a lot but he posts nice song covers on there. Click the link below so you can buy something from Dex's clothing line, it's great and I love it so you know you can trust it.”

“I'll be getting Nursey to pose in some of the crop tops and flower crowns, soon.”

“The Hell you will.”

“If I can do this, you can do that.”

“I'll do it, but only because I love you.”

“I love you too, babe.”


End file.
